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Challenging encounters with
strong gusty crosswinds during
the approach and landing phase
in commercial air transport
— never routine for flight crews and
sometimes underestimated by air traffic
control (ATC) — involve some risk because
of systemic gaps, mismatches and
misconceptions, says Gerard van Es,
senior consultant for flight operations
and flight safety, National Aerospace
Laboratory Netherlands (NLR).
He explained the impetus for
further study of the factors involved
and a few of NLR’s recently developed
recommendations during Flight Safety
FLIGHTSAFETY.ORG | AEROSAFETYWORLD | MAY 2013
Foundation’s International Air Safety
Seminar in Santiago, Chile, in October
2012. In April, van Es updated Aero-
Safety World about industry responses
to the complete report that he and
a colleague, Emmanuel Isambert,
prepared as advisers to the European
Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). 1
Difficult surface wind conditions 2
have confronted pilots since the flights
of Wilbur and Orville Wright, and
one of the many recent examples was
a serious incident in Germany in 2008
(see “Serious Incident in 2008 Prompted
German and EASA Analyses,” p.
41) that motivated German accident
THREATANALYSIS
investigators, and subsequently EASA,
to dig deeper into the causal factors
and to update mitigations. A German
recommendation — calling for
assessment of all measuring systems
that detect the presence of near-surface
gusts and how pilots integrate various
wind data into landing/go-around
decisions — led to the NLR study for
EASA, van Es said.
Crosswind-related regulations
originated in a period from a few years
after World War II to 1978, when demonstrated
crosswind in airworthinesscertification
regulations became fixed
for industry use, van Es said. 3
Strong
BY WAYNE ROSENKRANS
Gusty
Crosswinds
Two focused studies challenge today’s variations
in airline practices and flight crew decision making.
© Daan Krans/AirTeamImages
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